"Dozens of fake, artificial intelligence-generated photos showing Donald Trump with Black people are being spread by his supporters, according to a new investigation. …
The co-founder of Black Voters Matter, Cliff Albright, said the AI-generated photos appear to be part of a resurgence of disinformation tactics used in the 2020 election targeted toward the Black community."
@wdlindsy Trump never did apologize for calling for the Central Park Five to be executed, even AFTER they were exonerated. That's the real Trump. All his pandering now is because he wants to win an election. Same with 'Women/Latinos For Trump', just pawns, to be used and abused for Trump's own ends. If the Deplorables knew what Trump REALLY thought about them, they'd storm Mar-a-Lago, and rip off his arms, and legs.
@squig That is, indeed, the real Trump. The real Trump has the integrity and moral constitution of a bowl of jelly — and I apologize to bowls of jelly for making that comparison.
"After trying and failing to salvage Republicans’ crumbling impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, Ohio Representative Jim Jordan at last, finally, conceded on Friday that Alexander Smirnov’s story might not be totally accurate.
'I don’t know, maybe the guy did lie,' Jordan said at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday."
As Tori Otten says, the Republicans have just quietly removed a piece of "key evidence" in their bogus attempt to impeach Biden: this the FBI form recording Smirnov's lies fed to him by Russian agents about Biden accepting a bribe. Otten quotes Ian Sams:
"Lol, look what 'key evidence' just magically disappeared all the sudden from House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry website!"
@wdlindsy
☝️
"Meanwhile, Oliver Darcy at CNN describes the Hunter Biden/Burisma story as "imploding in spectacular fashion." It’s a national security issue. It’s a campaign issue. Republicans don’t want to talk about it. But it’s not going away.
"For years I’ve continued saying, against what seems like the unified thinking of every reporter, editorialist and credentialed smart person, that the fabled 'Hunter Biden Laptop' was obviously the product of a Russian influence operation. …
Yet basically everybody and I mean everybody ended up falling for this."
~ Josh Marshall
Corporate media fell for these inanities because they WANTED to fall for them.
"Every last person among the serious people of the nation’s capital and the sprawling thing called elite received opinion has egg on their face. And it’s not even clear they fully realize it yet."
Corporate media and the elite received opinion they manufacture NEEDED to fall for this pack of lies, because the both-sides narrative that is central to their framing of American political life at present could not be sustained otherwise.
"When we talk about how the media needs to change in response to the reemergence of authoritarianism in America, this is one of the obvious areas for improvement: Stop treating basic lies as normal. Start holding political actors accountable for false statements.
"(1) Treat the statements of political actors as if they are part of their permanent record. And then,
(2) Make it a priority to confront political actors every single time about their lies. Even the 'little' lies. ...
The American media has spent a generation letting politicians lie about every stupid little thing, and the net effect was to make an authoritarian Big Lie possible."
We, the Aktionsbündnis neue Soziale Medien (New Social Media Action Alliance) today appealed to #universities in Germany to shut down their #X (formerly #Twitter) accounts as soon as possible.
The appeal points out that the presence on X/Twitter does not do justice to the universities' remit to provide information because of the #disinformation and political agitation practised there. At the same time, presences should be established on #Mastodon and other services in the #Fediverse, whose decentralised and moderated design is much more compatible with the rules of democratic and sustainable coexistence.
I’ve now been using it for about two months and I am here to tell you that it is, in principle, what we should want the internet to be. If you have been remotely interested in Mastodon but had reservations about joining because you thought it would be difficult, confusing, or otherwise annoying, it is not.
Here is how you make a #Mastodon account: You go to this website. You agree to not share #disinformation or be an asshole. You select a username and password. Then, you have a Mastodon account.
Not owned by a company whose main platform has been credibly accused of facilitating genocide by the United Nations
Not funded by the guy who made the last place, which sold itself to the world’s richest man
Doesn’t have a crypto thing going on
Free and open source
Administered by a crowdfunded nonprofit
Decentralized, portable, and interoperable
I’m writing this because it has been weird to watch some journalists and people who are fully aware of Facebook’s catastrophic history with things like disinformation,
is transparently false. All the "good" arguments in the world won't change the user experience. Instance selection confusion is very real and pretending it doesn't exist helps nothing. It is one of the major adoption barriers for people.
Related to that: The recommended instance is certainly big. It's also a widely muted/restricted instance. Which is another aspect of the federation that throws and alienates would-be users.
I enjoy the Fediverse but don't minimize the obstacles.
“All this to say, please please please don’t let Gaza be a one-off in terms of your opposition to the imperial machine. Keep your eyes fiercely trained on its actions after this is over, and help bring as much attention to its crimes as possible. If you’re not sure about a particular conflict that’s in the news there are many great resources available for helping you sort out fact from fiction with regard to the empire and its propaganda spin.
The empire didn’t just start getting crazy and evil with Gaza. It’s always doing things like this. It always lies about them. The mass media always help it lie. Gaza isn’t some aberration in its usual behavior, it’s just more obvious.”
Disinformation Debunked: Building Resilience Through Media and Information Literacy by Divina Frau-Meigs & Nicoleta Corbu, 2024
Offering a comparative study of 4 European national experiences (France, Romania, Spain, and Sweden), the authors also make public policy recommendations to improve the fight against disinformation.
Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind by Annalee Newitz, 2024
In Stories Are Weapons, best-selling author Annalee Newitz traces the way disinformation, propaganda, and violent threats―the essential tool kit for psychological warfare―have evolved from military weapons deployed against foreign adversaries into tools in domestic culture wars.